February 29, 2012

Sidley Austin Expands Its Project Finance Team in D.C.

Sidley Austin has added a partner to its project finance group in Washington, the firm announced Wednesday.

Timothy Moran, formerly a partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf in D.C., focuses his practice on infrastructure project development and finance.

Moran has represented lenders, project sponsors and developers in matters related to development, financing, acquisition and sale of infrastructure projects in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He had handled matters related to alternative energy, coal and natural gas-fired facilities, natural gas storage facilities, LNG projects and natural gas pipelines.

Moran said that one of the qualities that attracted him to Sidley was the firm’s Asia presence. Sidley's Asia offices are located in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. This is advantageous to his current clients and for Asian companies and investors looking to do business in other parts of the world.

“I have U.S. clients who have pursued or are currently pursuing projects in Vietnam and the Philippines,” Moran said in an interview. “The strength of Sidley’s Asia practice opens up a lot of doors.”

Moran worked on the $1.1 billion transaction involving the second phase of the Astoria Energy facility, a power plant under construction in Queens, N.Y. The debt package involved coordination with 13 banks.

“My team and I view it as most notable because it happened well into the financial crisis,” Moran said.

“He has a highly respected and very dynamic project finance practice that fits perfectly with the firm’s significant expansion of its energy practice, as well as our enhancement of project finance capabilities,” Carter Phillips, managing partner of Sidley's Washington office, said in a written statement.